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User blog:Jaxhawk/A TALE OF TWO PRESIDENTS IMAGE MAKING
Dec. 30th, 2008 | 10:30 am Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.�� —Ronald Reagan With rumors swirling around the Internet that ex-Weatherman William Ayers "ghost" wrote Obama's "DREAM memoirs, and based the book on Homers "Odyssey". It occurs to me that the pictures of President elect Obama body surfing and pictures of him in his bathing suit walking on the beach, may be an attempt by Obama handlers to depict him as a "he man" who will lead from strength! In the following paragraphs I attempt to show the pictures of Obama "shirtless" are no isolated incident, but an attempt to show masculinity and power by his "team and the co-operating media. In Russian Vladimir Putin's case, his shirtless pictures were a demonstration of the physical prowess of a man who is a black belt in karate, and a spy who worked covertly on the KGB for years before he became President of Russia. Despite some incredulous reactions to Putin allowing himself to be photographed topless on blogs."Wilderness Putin," has been getting a lot of thumbs up in Russia as well. Many bloggers are calling him "sexy"! The reactions should come as no surprise. Like any good politician, part of Putin’s popularity is based on his image. Compared to the Russian and Soviet leaders who came before him, Putin is leading the charge for the young and healthy generation. At the end of the Soviet era, it was hard to keep up with which 70-year-old, visibly sick leader was in charge. After Leonid Brezhnev died, neither of the next two successors lasted more than 15 months before dying – leading to the joke of a guard demanding to see someone’s ticket to be allowed in to a Soviet leader’s funeral, to which he responds that he has season tickets. Source:Pravda Now,Obama's physique has been well-exposed; photographers snapped him body surfing in Hawaii during the campaign. He was on the November cover of Men's Health and detailed his workouts for the magazine: 45 minutes, six days a week, alternating between weights and "cardio". Obama is apparently now the world's biggest celebrity, just after Angelina and Brad Pitt. I guess some would say they're neck and neck right now. The celebrity description is appropriate, even as Obama faces a plummeting economy and two wars upon entering office. He's seen as often on "Access Hollywood" as on the nightly news, and appears in "Us Weekly" with the regularity of a Jennifer Aniston.This is understandable when you consider that the media chose him as their messiah long ago! When John F. Kennedy was pictured shirtless, there were media accounts fretting about the threshold we had crossed as a country, but nothing Obama does will ever get a negative spin in the Media. Vladimir Putin. The black-belt-in-judo, non-smoking, rarely-drinking, cool and collected leader. While his popularity is certainly tied to his image – leading to everything from Putinka brand vodka to the girl-band pop song "Like Putin" (whose singers look for a man who is "like Putin/full of strength/like Putin/who won’t drink) – Putin’s image is, in turn, mirrored by his era. This is an era in which Russia is getting stronger, reasserting itself internationally, becoming more stable at home and growing economically. And if it’s the image of a shirtless, machete-wielding president which best represents the man who can do all that and enjoy approval ratings at about 70 percent, maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Is it such a stretch to think that the Obama "string pullers" are entering the image enhancement stage to reassure those who did vote for him, that he is physically fit to fight the problems our country faces? If so, look forward to more "puff" pictures of President Obama as his term in office turns ugly due to the decisions he must make that will not please all the special interest groups that put him in the Oval Office. And the Left leaning Media took the bait! The following "Swoon" article illustrates the media's messianic opinion of the President elect. "A paparazzi picture of a buff and shirtless Barack Obama Monday prompted a decidedly un-presidential reaction on the Web. “Dang, my President is SMOKIN' HOT. Who else has such a fine leader? France? Great Britain? Eat your heart out, Sarkozy,�� wrote one commenter on The Huffington Post, one of a select few outlets to receive the images Monday. Peter Moore, the editor of Men’s Health magazine who interviewed Obama on his workout habits for a November cover story, told Politico his nearly seven-day-a-week regimen seems to have paid off. “No love handles to speak of on the sides. You see the definitions in his arms. He’s a dude. Wow.�� Well, when I look at the pictures of Obama and compare his physique with that of Putin. It leaves me wondering what they see that is so "hot"? Posted by BILL at Monday, December 29, 2008 Category:IMAGE MAKING OF A PRESIDENT